I was recently watching a late-night television show and during the commercial break, there were advertisements for “Q-Ray” bracelets. Forgive me for being blunt but stupidity has no limits.
The Q-Ray bracelet is nothing new – they company advertises that they’ve been selling them for 15 years. The problem is that the bracelets have only ever been credited with curing one ailment (more on that later). The bracelets have no plausible method of action and have been discredited time and time again by even the simplest of studies. During the commercials for the product I had to just shake my head in amazement.
Just this morning, however, I received a SPAM from a company advertising “hologram power bracelets” at huge discounts (“Normally sold in stores for $60” but available from them “for only 19.95$”). I didn’t follow the link (I didn’t want them to know I actually read their email) but I did a quick search and found countless varieties of this useless crap.
During my search, I came across an Australian newspaper article that mentions these “Power Balance” “powerbands” and their $60 pricetag. One can not help but be heartily amused by the ironic final sentence. A link on that page (“Science takes up challenge of wrist band”) is mildly ironic in itself – the idea that a chiropractor was going to actually perform clinical studies (my apologies to the strict minority of chiropractors who strive to be science based).
It turns out that “Power Balance” and the “Q-Ray” do both have the same effect – no matter what model you buy, they are both able to cure you of the not-so-common ailment of “thick wallet syndrome”. If you have too much money in your wallet, they both offer a quick and easy way to thin it out (depending on the model you buy, it can help to a greater or lesser degree – from a quick search, it appears that the double mesh necklace is the most effective).
For more information, check out CBC Marketplace “Buying Belief”
Also see Quackwatch
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1 comment:
my parents wanted qray bracelets for christmas because they saw the commercials and a friend out west had talked about hers
being a skeptic, my brother bought fake bracelets that looked like qray and my parents still swear they work wonders
it is unfortunate that my parents won't accept that they are fake - they still speak of their wonders to their friends
almost every one of their friends now has the "new version" of the bracelets (they think my brother just bought an older and less stylish version for them)
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